Disappearing 9 Patch Part 5 (Final)

I promise this is the last part of my series of quilting. It has taken awhile, but those who were along for the ride we are almost there. As I type this I am sitting on my couch under my NEW quilt. LOL. I have started planning my next one, but more on that in another post.

So here we are binding. The way I do it is not the only right way. The lady at my favorite fabric shop (which by the way will be closing it's doors forever May 14th
:( ) showed me how to do this.

First, I start by cutting off the extra batting and backing from around the quilt. Cut everything even with the top.



Alright the way you should technically do this is to take your quilt and measure each side. Total it up and divide by the width of your fabric that you are using to bind it with to find how much fabric you will need. For this quilt I decided to use the same fabric as the border. WRONG choice to be able to show you everything. SORRY! I didn't think about it. BUT for me that's too much math. All of my quilters please close your eyes and don't read this part because you all will just shake your head at me... LOL.

This is Mary's way... You will now see how crazy I am and what I do in my spare time... Alright I know that my quilt is only a lap size so I won't need a huge amount of fabric. I also know my quilt has 4 sides...DUHHHHH!!!! LOL Keep following you'll see where I'm going with this... So I know I will need at least 4 strips of fabric, but hey since I have more fabric I'll just cut one more for good measure. I always use the same size border, but you can use any size. I do what is called a double binding (or something like that) LOL. The jest is I take one piece of fabric and fold it lengthwise to make my binding. You'll see keep reading. LOL Alright so I always cut my binding 2 1/2 inches wide by the length of the fabric (normally 42-44 inches). The 1/2 inch covers the seam allowance and when the piece is folded in half you will be left with a 1 inch binding. Trust me... just keep going.



Now when you do the binding you want one continuous piece of fabric. So you will need to join your 5 strips that you cut. When you join your pieces you want to join them with a diagonal seam. This makes the strength an appearance better. This part use to confuse the heck out of me. My brain just couldn't grasp which way I needed to stitch them together. Sooooo... I don't want you to have to tear out your stitches like me. :)

Take your first strip and lay it right side face up. Take the second piece and lay the right sides together at a 90 degree angle.



Now take out your chalk pencil again and draw a 45 degree angle as shown. I know it's blurry but you can still see.



Now sew along that line then trim to 1/4 inch.



Continue doing that with all the strips until you have one long piece. Remember I have 5 pieces because four probably isn't going to be enough so for good measure I did 5. No math just common sense. Then take it to your iron and fold the strips in half and press. Take one end of the strip and fold it so that there is 2 inches folded so that the wrong sides are together and press.



Ready to start sewing??? Pick an edge of the quilt that you want to be the bottom. Take the end of your strip that had the edge pressed under and lay it on the quilt top so that the cut edges are matched up in the middle of the bottom of the quilt. Pin in place. Don't pin any further!





Now take your machine and sew a 1/4 in seam starting about 2 inches (the part you pressed under) from the end (leave a tail so to speak) until you get to 1/4 inch from the first corner. Be sure to backstitch at the end.



Take the strip and fold straight back until you get to you stitching line and hold with your finger...



Take the strips and then pull it toward you until the edge of the strip and the quilt top are level. PIN pin pin... oh did I say PIN. LOL. Yep I've let these babies go and had to keep refolding.



Now start sewing again. Remember only 1/4 inch seam until you get to within 1/4 inch of the next corner. Do the same thing until you get all the way around to where you started. If you did it like me you have more than enough left over. Take and trim your piece so that it will tuck inside of the tail you left.



Now tuck inside and finish stitching.



All done?



I totally forgot to take pictures of this last step...

The next step is take the folded edge and pull it toward the backing of your quilt so that the fold covers the stitching of the binding. Now take your thread and hand stitch the binding to the backing being careful not to stitch completely through to the front. Keep all stitches hidden in the backing or batting. Do this until you get completely around. Congratulations!!! You just finished !!!!